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Apple must face lawsuit claiming iPhone to Android switch led to 'vanishing' text messages

Apple released a tool to "deregister" a phone number from iMessage, but it wasn't enough to prevent a lawsuit from landing on the iPhone maker's doorstep.
Written by Zack Whittaker, Contributor
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Image: CNET/CBS Interactive

Apple is facing a U.S. federal lawsuit that claims it failed to tell its users that switching from an iPhone to Android could cause text messages not to arrive.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, of Apple v. Samsung fame, said on Monday that the iPhone maker must face one disgruntled user in court, who claims the switch interfered with her Verizon contract. 

Adrienne Moore claimed in a suit filed earlier this year that switching from an iPhone 4 to a Samsung Galaxy S5 in April caused "countless" messages to not arrive, because Apple's own proprietary iMessage system could not recognize when a user switched to a rival device.

Moore is seeking class-action status, according to Reuters, and unspecified damages.

Koh said in her late-evening decision on Monday that Apple may have violated a California competition law by blocking messages, which the judge said may have been "intentional acts."

Apple this week released a tool allowing users to deregister from its iMessage service.

However, it comes around six months after the Cupertino, Calif.-based company first acknowledged there was a problem with its messaging service.

The problem, known as "iMessage purgatory," led Apple to fix a "server-side" issue at the time. 

(via Reuters)

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